Sometimes All You Can Do Is Laugh

The Other Side of Anxiety – Actionable Steps to Overcome Anxiety

Have you ever driven on a country road at night and you only could see a few feet ahead of you? Everything beyond the range of your headlights was completely dark. Living with anxiety is like driving down that country road, only the sun never rises.

What I’ve discovered though, is that the sun DOES continue to rise, but when you’ve dealt with anxiety for so long you still can ONLY focus on just the few feet ahead of you. In the meantime we’ve missed out on opportunities, relationships, and time.

I’m in no way claiming to have a cure for anxiety – we all have different experiences and hardships. What I will offer is some advice that at least allows you to turn on your high-beams.

My #DreamCoach says that the best form of personal development is doing hard shit. Driving was a huge anxiety trigger of mine. I can’t even explain why it triggered such fear and intrusive thoughts. But every time I got behind the wheel I had TERRIBLE visualizations of me and my family being very badly hurt. To get past this fear I started small.

Drive around the block without the kids.

Drive around the block with the kids.

Drive to the grocery store.

Take it a little further and go to the next town.

Do it over and over and over again and eventually you stop thinking about the bad stuff. I promise you though, it doesn’t get better by sitting around paralyzed in fear. You must take action.

Easier said that done, right? Talking with your doctor and coming up with a plan to get you back to normal may need to be your first step. Whether it’s anti-depressants, CBD oil, acupuncture, Yoga, meditation, etc. find something that allows you to get to a state of feeling “ok.”

From OK, we move to Fine. From Fine we can get you to good. From good, you see the sunrise again. You begin to notice the scenery, pitstops, and landmarks. There is LIFE on the other side of where you are right now.

Anxiety is not terminal. This isn’t something that you’re destined to be burdened with for the rest of your life. You especially don’t need to go through this alone. There is a Facebook Group called #TheAnxiousAchiever full of people just like us, who have challenges with anxiety and we’re getting through this together!